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Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall near the waterfront and Government Center, in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts, United States. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by
Samuel Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, Political philosophy, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts, a le ...
, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
. It is now part of
Boston National Historical Park The Boston National Historical Park is an association of sites that showcase Boston's role in the American Revolution and other parts of history. It was designated a national park on October 1, 1974. Seven of the eight sites are connected by the ...
and a well-known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty", though the building and location have ties to slavery. In 2008, Faneuil Hall was rated number 4 in "America's 25 Most Visited Tourist Sites" by ''Forbes Traveler''.


History


Eighteenth century

After the project of erecting a public market house in Boston had been discussed for some years, colonial merchant and slave trader Peter Faneuil offered, at a public meeting in 1740, to build a suitable edifice at his own cost as a gift to the town. Although a vote of thanks was passed unanimously, his offer was accepted by a majority of only seven (367 to 360). Funded in part by profits from slave trading, the building was begun in Dock Square in September of the same year. It was built by artist
John Smibert John Smibert (24 March 1688 – 2 April 1751) was a Scottish-born painter who was the first academically trained artist to work in British America. Career Smibert was born in Edinburgh on 24 March 1688, the second youngest of six children of Ali ...
in 1740–1742 in the style of an English country market, with an open ground floor serving as the market house, and an assembly room above. According to Sean Hennessey, a National Park Service spokesman, some of Boston's early slave auctions took place near Faneuil Hall. In 1761, the hall was destroyed by fire, with nothing but the brick walls remaining. It was rebuilt by the town in 1762. In 1775, during the British occupation of Boston, it was used for a theatre.


Nineteenth century

In 1806, the hall was greatly expanded by
Charles Bulfinch Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...
, doubling its height and width and adding a third floor. Four new bays were added, to make seven in all. The open arcades were enclosed, and the
cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...
was moved to the opposite end of the building. Bulfinch applied Doric brick
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s to the lower two floors, with Ionic pilasters on the third floor. This renovation added galleries around the assembly hall and increased its height. Faneuil Hall was used for
town meeting Town meeting, also known as an "open town meeting", is a form of local government in which eligible town residents can directly participate in an assembly which determines the governance of their town. Unlike representative town meeting where ...
s until 1822. Neighboring Quincy Market was constructed between 1824 and 1826.
Abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
s met at the hall in the 1830s and formed the Committee of Vigilance and Safety to "take all measures that they shall deem expedient to protect the colored people of this city in the enjoyment of their lives and liberties." Faneuil Hall was entirely rebuilt of noncombustible materials in 1898–1899.


Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

On October 9, 1960, the building was designated a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
and added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
following the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which placed all National Historic Landmarks in the National Register. The ground floor and basement were altered in 1979. The Hall was restored again in 1992, and in 1994 the building was designated a local
Boston Landmark A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New Engla ...
by the Boston Landmarks Commission. The headquarters of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is located on the fourth floor and includes an armory, library, offices, quartermaster department, commissary, and a military museum with free admission.


Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Faneuil Hall is owned by the city of Boston, as is Quincy Market (commonly referred to as Faneuil Hall Marketplace), which includes three historic granite buildings—North Market, Quincy Market, and South Market—to the east of Faneuil Hall that operate as an indoor/outdoor mall and food eatery. The architect for the 1976 refurbishment and repositioning of Quincy Market was Benjamin Thompson and Associates and managed by the Rouse Company; its success in the late 1970s led to the emergence of similar marketplaces in other U.S. cities. It has since come under the ownership of the Ashkenazy Corp. Faneuil Hall is not part of the festival marketplace known as Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Rather it is owned by the City of Boston and managed by the National Park Service. The North and South Markets buildings are currently under study for landmark status by the Boston Landmarks Commission.


Uses

On Friday in early August 1890, one of the first black Republican legislators of Boston,
Julius Caesar Chappelle Julius Caesar Chappelle ( – January 27, 1904) was an American Republican Party politician who was born into slavery in South Carolina and served in the Massachusetts General Court. He was a leading figure of Boston's black community from 1870 u ...
, made a speech "At the Cradle of Liberty" in support of the Federal Elections bill that would help give Black people the right to vote. Chappelle was a Boston legislator from 1883 to 1886. The Faneuil Hall event was covered by the media in the United States, and the speech by Chappelle appeared in an August 9, 1890, article, "At the Cradle of Liberty, Enthusiastic Endorsement of the Elections Bill, Faneuil Hall again Filled with Liberty Loving Bostonians to Urge a Free Ballot and Fare Count" on the front page of ''The New York Age'' newspaper on Saturday, August 9, 1890. On November 7, 1979, Faneuil Hall was the site of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's speech declaring his candidacy for president. On November 3, 2004, Faneuil Hall was the site of
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
's concession speech in the 2004 presidential election. On April 11, 2006, Governor
Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...
signed Massachusetts' health care bill into law with a fife and drum band in Faneuil Hall before 300 ticketed guests. On October 30, 2013, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
delivered a defense of the
Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
from the same spot where Romney signed his state's expansion of healthcare in 2006. On November 2, 2014, Boston Mayor
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three mont ...
lay in state in Faneuil Hall following his death on October 30, 2014. The headquarters of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts has been in Faneuil Hall since 1746, currently on the 4th floor. It is also still used for political debates between Massachusetts candidates as well as political shows, such as ''
The O'Reilly Factor ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...
''.


Name

''Faneuil'' is a French name, and is anglicized as or (rhyming with ''panel'' or ''Daniel''). During the colonial era, it may have been pronounced as in ''funnel''. At Peter Faneuil's burial, only the Faneuil family crest was displayed on his headstone; its current inscription of "P. Funel" was added much later. In his 1825 novel '' Lionel Lincoln'', James Fenimore Cooper used
eye dialect Eye dialect is a writer's use of deliberately nonstandard spelling either because they do not consider the standard spelling a good reflection of the pronunciation or because they are intending to portray vernacular, informal or low-status language ...
for Bostonian characters to indicate that they pronounced it ''Funnel Hall''. Boston area locals often use the term ''Faneuil'' to refer to the entire surrounding neighborhood, particularly as a landmark for its vibrant nightlife. In August 2017, amid heightened media coverage of the
removal of Confederate monuments and memorials There are more than 160 Confederate monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures that have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five of which have been sin ...
, the activist group New Democracy Coalition proposed that Faneuil Hall's name be changed because of Peter Faneuil's participation in the slave trade. In response to the proposal, Boston mayor
Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and trade union official who served as the 58th mayor of Boston from 2014 to 2021 and as the 29th United States Secretary of Labor from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Democr ...
stated: "We are not going to change the name of Faneuil Hall". Additional name change protests have followed, including activists chaining themselves to the front door and a
sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
.


Building elements


Bell

After a sixty-two year hiatus, the hall's bell began ringing again in 2007 when a stuck clapper was freed and lubricated and new bellrope attached to the bell. Its last known ringing with its clapper had been at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in 1945 (though it had been rung several times after that with a mallet).


Grasshopper weather vane

The gilded grasshopper
weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
on top of the building was created by Deacon Shem Drowne in 1742. Gilded with gold leaf, it weighs , is long, and is believed to be modeled after that of the London Royal Exchange, itself based upon the family crest of
Thomas Gresham Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (; c. 151921 November 1579) was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1565 Gr ...
.


Public art and landscape artwork

The area between the eastern end of Faneuil Hall and Congress Street is part of Boston National Historical Park. In this landscape is a nineteenth-century sculpture of Samuel Adams created by sculptor Anne Whitney. The granite plaza surface is marked for with the approximate location of the early colonial shoreline c. 1630. The street layout and building plot plan designations from an 1820 map are shown by etched dashed lines and changes from pink granite to grey granite paving slabs. The shoreline marking artwork entitled, '' A Once and Future Shoreline,'' is made with etched silhouettes of seaweed, sea grass, fish, shells and other materials found along a high tide line. Art within Faneuil Hall includes many paintings and sculpture busts of Revolutionary War activists, pre Civil War abolitionists, and political leaders.


Timeline of events

* 1761 – Hall burned down. * 1762 – Hall rebuilt. * 1767 – October 28: Petition to boycott imported goods signed. * 1768 – Faneuil Hall is briefly used to quarter the newly arrived 14th Regiment during the occupation of Boston. * 1773 – December 3: Meeting about
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...
lately arrived on the ship Eleanor; Capt. James Bruce, Samuel Adams, Jonathan Williams, and others present * 1806 – Building remodelled and expanded by Charles Bulfinch * August 2, 1826 –
Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...
eulogizes
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
and
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
* July 11, 1831 – Timothy Fuller speaks "at the request of the Suffolk Anti-Masonic Committee" * September 6, 1834 –
Edward Everett Edward Everett (April 11, 1794 – January 15, 1865) was an American politician, Unitarian pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts. Everett, as a Whig, served as U.S. representative, U.S. senator, the 15th governor of Mas ...
eulogizes Lafayette * 1837 **
Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884) was an American abolitionist, labor reformer, temperance activist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, and attorney. According to George Lewis Ruffin, a black attorney, Phillip ...
speaks ** 1st Exhibition and Fair of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association * 1839 – Peleg Sprague
stumps In cricket, the stumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form the wicket. '' Stumping'' or ''being stumped'' is a method of dismissing a batsman. The umpire ''calling stumps'' means the play is over for the day. Part of ...
for candidate
William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...
* July 4, 1843 – Charles Francis Adams Sr. speaks * April 15, 1848 – Edward Everett eulogizes
John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...
* May 26, 1854 – After arrest of Anthony Burns, public meeting "to secure justice for a man claimed as a slave by a Virginia kidnapper, and imprisoned in Boston Court House, in defiance of the laws of Massachusetts." * April 18, 1863 – Andrew Jackson Hamilton "of Texas" speaks "at the war meeting" * January 9, 1865 – Edward Everett speaks on "the relief of the suffering people of
Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...
" * June 7, 1876 – Meeting "in favor of public parks;" Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and others speak * August 1, 1878 – "Indignation meeting ... to protest against the injury done to the freedom of the press by the conviction and imprisonment of Ezra H. Heywood" * October 29, 1887 –
Eben Norton Horsford Eben Norton Horsford (July 27, 1818 – January 1, 1893) was an American scientist who taught agricultural chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard from 1847 to 1863. Later he was known for his reformulation of baking powder, his i ...
speaks on occasion of the unveiling of Anne Whitney's
Leif Ericson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of I ...
statue (installed on Commonwealth Ave.) * August 1890 –
Julius Caesar Chappelle Julius Caesar Chappelle ( – January 27, 1904) was an American Republican Party politician who was born into slavery in South Carolina and served in the Massachusetts General Court. He was a leading figure of Boston's black community from 1870 u ...
, Republican legislator of Boston, MA (1883–1886), one of the first black legislators in the United States, makes a speech (endorsing the Federal Elections bill that would help give blacks the right to vote) that was printed in ''The New York Age'' newspaper's front-page article, "At the Cradle of Liberty" on August 9, 1890. * June 15, 1898 – James E. McCormick published a letter in the ''
Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published for over a century from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. History Founding ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James We ...
'' on June 2 which led to a June 15 meeting at Faneuil Hall, thus the founding of the
American Anti-Imperialist League The American Anti-Imperialist League was an organization established on June 15, 1898, to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area. The anti-imperialists opposed forced expansion, believing that imperialism violated t ...
in opposition to the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
as well the subsequent Filipino-American War. To note one of the league's more familiar names,
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
served as vice-president from 1901 to his passing in 1910. * 1903 ** March 4 – Frederic J. Stimson debates James F. Carey ** March 19 – Protest "against the suppression of truth about the Philippines" * May 1909 – 32nd Grand Division (Order of Railroad Conductors) ORC Convention * 1974 – Weathervane stolen, then returned"Grasshopper Weather Vane on Faneuil Hall Is Stolen". ''New York Times''. January 6, 1974. p. 54. * 1992 – Building restored * 2012 – Lower level and first level completely renovated by Eastern General Contractors, Inc. of Springfield, MA


Gallery

File:Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1839.png, 1839 engraving of Faneuil Hall File:Wreck of the Atlantic -- Breakfast to Survivors in Faneuil Hall.jpg, Survivors of the wreck are given breakfast at Faneuil Hall, 1873 engraving File:Faneuil Hall in May 1973 - Boston MA.jpg, Faneuil Hall and Congress St., 1973 File:Aerial view of Government Center construction, 1960s.jpg, Faneuil Hall (bottom left) during the construction of Government Center File:1981 BostonCityHall byLebovich11 HABS MA1176.jpg, 1981 view of Faneuil Hall from the steps of
Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of local government in the United States, city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the List of mayors of Boston, mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in ...
File:Interior of Faneuil Hall 01.jpg, The Great Hall File:Heraldic eagle, Faneuil Hall, Boston.jpg, 1798 eagle statue in the building's interior File:Faneuil Hall May 2020.jpg, The building's exterior in 2020 File:General view - Museum of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts - IMG 6946.JPG, Museum of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts


See also

* Dock Square (Boston, Massachusetts) *
Harborplace Harborplace is a shopping and dining complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Description The property consists of two pavilions, each two stories in height; one along Pratt Street, the other on Light Street. The pavilions house a ...
* South Street Seaport * Boston Landmarks Commission * List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston *
National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts __NOTOC__ Boston, Massachusetts is home to many listings on the National Register of Historic Places. This list encompasses those locations that are located north of the Massachusetts Turnpike. See National Register of Historic Places listings in ...


References

Notes Further reading * Abram English Brown (1901
''Faneuil hall and Faneuil Hall Market: or, Peter Faneuil and His Gift''
Boston: Lee and Shepard. * Burgon, John William (1839) ''Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham''. London: Robert Jennings


External links


Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Faneuil Hall
( City of Boston)
Faneuil Hall
(
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
)
(Official website of the Freedom Trail)


(
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
)
Boston Classical Orchestra

Historic American Buildings Survey
Library of Congress. Includes 1937 photos.
SAH Archipedia Building Entry

Faneuil Hall Study Report
{{Authority control 1743 establishments in the Province of Massachusetts Bay Boston National Historical Park Charles Bulfinch buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1762 Commercial buildings in Boston Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Georgian architecture Government Center, Boston Landmarks in Boston Market houses National Historic Landmarks in Boston National Register of Historic Places in Boston Shopping malls in Massachusetts